14 February 2012

Last week Wall Street Journal announced that Google will soon release a cloud service for storing and sharing files, similar to the ones already provided by Dropbox and SkyDrive. As the kalmstrom.com team has used Dropbox for file sharing during several years we look forward to the new release with interest. Will Google's G-Drive offer something better?

To store and share files in the cloud
Cloud storage is an alternative to disks, extra hard drives and other medias used for backing up files. Instead of connecting a physical device to your computer and save your files to it, you upload them to a server via the internet. If you give another person access to the folders that contain your files, you can easily share them without having to send them as e-mail attachments or using other more troublesome and insecure ways.

The kalmstrom.com use of Dropbox
When you download a product from the kalmstrom.com website it is actually not stored there at all. Instead we use a public Dropbox folder, and it has worked just fine. At kalmstrom.com only three people are allowed to upload files to this public folder, so you can feel sure you will get a clean product. But anyone may of course download the files.

Also for the Premium, register free copies of the kalmstrom.com software we use Dropbox. Here there are only a few people with access rights on either side, so the Premium copy is well protected and cannot be used by anyone but a couple of responsible persons in the Premium Member organization. The kalmstrom.com team makes good use of Dropbox for sharing files within the group. In my PC I have a number of Dropbox subfolders that I share with different team members, and when one of them has dragged a file to the corresponding folder in her/his PC it does not take many seconds before I have it in my own machine and can open it.

The Google challenge
Google already offers several services for storing data in the cloud, so it is a logical step for this giant to take up the fight with Dropbox. It is said that Google will offer 25 GB of storage for free against Dropbox 2GB, but to really compete and make happy users leave Dropbox I think Google has to make their service better than Dropbox also. Microsoft SkyDrive already offers 25 GB, but they are still not as strong on the market as Dropbox is.

Who is the most reliable?
The outcome of the competition is also a matter of confidence. Whom do you want to entrust your valuable files? Lately Google has received some hard criticism for lack of respect for user integrity, a sentiment that Microsoft has encouraged in various ways. Dropbox, on the other hand, has a good reputation for security and protection of data, and I am sure they will do everything to keep this high regard.

The kalmstrom.com team will monitor the development closely, but today we see no reason to leave Dropbox for any other provider of cloud sharing and storage.